900 jobs go at Osram

Osram is closing down some of its maintenance sites in the United States and Canada. The restructuring of Osram Sylvania’s Sylvania Lighting Services will result in 900 job losses.

This is part of the company’s plan to scale back on traditional streetlighting in favour of LEDs. Osram boss Wolfgang Dehen said: ‘Our focus is on profitable growth and therefore we are consequently implementing the company’s transformation agenda.’

Osram, which was spun off from Siemens in July, is making lots of changes following pressure to invest in LED technology and keep up with rivals. The company previously said it plans to cut around 8,000 jobs by the end of 2014m saving $1.35 billion (€1 billion) in costs between 2013 and 2015.

Osram spokesman Stefan Schmidt said: ‘Currently, Osram is building up capacities in the LED area. This includes investment over $136 million (€100 million) in a new LED assembly plant in the Chinese city of Wuxi. In the final completion stage, the new assembly plant will be able to accommodate up to 1,600 employees.’

More details of Osram’s move towards LED will be revealed in November.